Customer Reviews

Mobile Mansions (Intl) : Taking Home Sweet Home on the Road

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"RVers are some of the friendliest people on earth," writes Doug Keister in his new pop culture history, "Mobile Mansions: Taking 'Home Sweet Home' On the Road" ($24.95 in large size paperback from Gibbs Smith, Publisher). "Unlike the rest of us who are permanently or temporarily moored in our bolted-down communities, they take the bumps in the road of life a little more serenely." And none are friendlier than those who own vintage and classic RVs, the mobile conveyances celebrated in Keister's book.

Replete with 200 color photographs, most taken by Keister himself on location, the book explores not only the history of the recreational vehicle but allows the reader to see inside courtesy of the author's crisp, clear interior shots. From Camp Dearborn, Mich., to Quartzsite, Ariz. (with a quick stop in Chico), Keister documents the development of what used to be called "autocamping."

Autocamping was popularized by Henry Ford, Thomas Edison and Harvey Firestone (of tire fame), along with an unlikely companion, a naturalist named John Burroughs. After about 1915 the group called themselves "the Vagabonds," attracting newspaper attention everywhere they went. The group was not exactly rustic -- Firestone brought his butler along to help him better appreciate "roughing it."

Later on, the "Tin Can Tourists" organization was established in 1919; they "took their name from the tin can provisions that they subsisted on and, some say, also from the Tin Lizzies many of them drove."

The Great Depression and better roadways put Americans on the road. It was the golden age of the travel trailer. Subsequent decades saw the development of house cars, refined camp cars, family buses, truck campers, vans and motor homes (which had their start with the Frank Motor Home in 1958 which morphed into the Travco Motor Home in 1965.) There are other storied names in the book: Volkswagen, Winnebago, Newell, Barth, Flexible.

Keister devotes a chapter to each kind of "mobile mansion" with a focus on "personal visions" in the last chapter. Pride of place here goes to "Draco," a four-wheel-drive motorhome created by Shahn Torontow of Victoria, British Columbia, who constructed it so his photographer wife, disabled by Lyme disease, "could still go on backcountry photographic expeditions. The bones of Draco are an Oshkosh M-1000 Aircraft Rescue Fire Truck." There's also a wheelchair lift, 14-inch wide tires, a winch and "a 335-horsepower Caterpillar 3406A diesel-pusher engine." The contraption was photographed in Chico. Dishes have magnets glued to their bottoms so they "stick" on steel plate walls and a "macerator-type toilet liquifies waste ... (which) can be pumped into the exhaust system where it is vaporized at over 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit."

Pop culture connections abound. Converted Greyhound Scenicruisers (last made in the mid-1950s) help bands reach their next gigs; Charles Kuralt (the CBS "On the Road" guy) used an FMC ("Food Machinery Corporation") motor home; Barbie's "Disco motor home" came from Mattel; Mae West owned "a 1931 22-foot house car build on a Chevrolet truck chassis" -- it slept four and sported a rear balcony where West could address her fans; Ozzie and Harriet used an Alaskan Camper; John Steinbeck traveled with his poodle Charley in 1960 in a GMC pickup truck and Wolverine camper; the Partridge Family's hippie bus was a '57 Chevy school bus; and Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters drove a converted bus, too.

Sprightly fun, Keister's homage to mobile living costs less than 10 gallons of gas -- and lasts a lot longer!

Interesting and informative especially for an RVer. I especially liked the historical progression leading from Gypsies to today. I also appreciated a look at some of the more unique campgrounds like Quartzsite and the Slabs.

But I wish he had more coverage of modren travel trailers. They make up a large part of today's RV sales and they shouldn't be writen off yet.

The BEST review anyone can give a Photo themed book is to reference the pictures and allow them to truly illustrate the subject matter. Beyond his articulate prose, Mr. Keister speaks so lovingly to the subjects of this book with his images. Seldom do I enjoy BOTH the photographs and the text of a book...... Congragulations to Douglas Keister on a well-researched and beautifully photographed history of truly vintage mansions on wheels!

This book is an important part of my classic RV library, along with 2 other vintage RV books by the same author,"Ready to Roll" (my favorite classic RV book) and "Silver Palaces".
While Ready to Roll gives you some history and shows the evolution of American trailers, this book focuses on motor homes, including some home made versions and strange versions from other countries that you will not see on our roads. This book is smaller than Ready to Roll, at 200 photos instead of 300, but it is quite interesting. The big brands are also here, Airstream, GMC, Winnebago, The smart layout of the book is fun and engaging, and the photos are big & beautiful and done with a love for the subject, like his other RV books. There are also antique photos of old RV's as well as nostalgic promotional material from the manufacturer's. I have a soft spot for the older restored RV's myself, and they are faithfully included.

Love it!! Looking for more like it! It sits promenently on my coffee table. It gets opened regularly by everyone. It was a Christmas gift to me, from me. I couldn't get it away from my 24 year old son from moment I opened it. Filled with great history and entertaining writings. Buy it!

Take a nostalgia trip down through the years of motor homes. Of course in the early days they were called motor homes, instead they started with wagons such as those in cowboy movies and in the Gypsy wagons (still to be found out here in the west in use by sheepherders). But soon after the advent of the automobile came specialized bodies that had tents, beds, even a church.

This book begins with pictures from the past, but quickly turns to new photographs taken by the author. Most of these are of vintage vehicles that have been painstakingly restored by their new owners.

There are also a good number of vehicles that might be called home made, but these are home made with style. My own favorite was one made from a surplus Air Force crash truck. Beautiful, but it probably only gets three miles per gallon.

This is a beautiful book of four color pictures that would be at home on a coffee table or in your own RV.

Douglas Keister is deceptively brilliant. He handles a 4x5 with more dexterity than most photographers can handle a point-and-shoot. He appears to be laid back, but underneath the casual facade the wheels are always turning. At ease in any situation, be it Burning Man or a Rotarian Convention, Keister is impossible to categorize. Imagine a cross between Tom Wolfe and the Energizer Bunny. I heartily recommend this book to anyone who has ever dreamed of "going in style!"

This book has great pictures and a wonderfully complete history of travel trailers and recreational vehicles. Some of these are quite exotic. The book is worth it, just for the pictures.

The book was well written. The pictures were good examples of rare and unique rv's.

If you own an RV, trailer, camper or 5th wheel.. or are thinking of buying or restoring one.. GET THIS BOOK! Amazon.com best price we found.